# Workplace griping, anyone? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 12, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401 "2010-11-12T06:39:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 163
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3242 "2012-03-09T22:55:44Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > If you’re like me (and I know I am) you’re too short to reach the showerhead. > > So far no one’s beat Mr. Anal Retentive in the idiot with a shower contest. He actually took his showerhead apart and wiped it with a washcloth, then walked downstairs with the washcloth to show me that it had dirt on it. Two days in a row he did this. And then he complained to Big Boss and somehow talked Big Boss into refunding a night’s stay back to his credit card. I still haven’t figured that one out yet. Sorry, I’m an amazon and my grief is that I’ve hurt my neck while in the shower (our old place had a shower head that was right at nose level..) I can understand not being able to check though. That guy though? I imagine he was either a germaphobe (but how could he stand to stay in a hotel then?) or an ass trying to get a freebie. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3243 "2012-03-10T01:10:37Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Two weeks ago I asked you to set up a corporate account with Hertz/Budget/wherever so our employees can pick up a rental car w/o having a credit card on them. Two weeks ago. > > 5 days ago you send me an email detailing the steps, to which I replied “Was this done?” > > Today I definitively find out “No, this wasn’t done. I thought you were going to do it. I put a piece of paper on your desk saying what had to be done\*.” > > No, I didn’t do it - I asked _you_ to do it because that’s what you’re paid to do. I spent 60+ hours over the past 7 days working on a $6 milllion RFP (requiring the set up and modification of 65 separate project budgets, gantt charts, visio flowcharts, excel-based summaries, etc) because that’s what I’m paid to do. > > And what makes this worse is that you’re my _wife_ and I’m going to have to listen to your excuses and being mad at me all fucking weekend when it was _you_ who didn’t do your damned job. > > And now I have a guy who needs a car _tomorrow_ and he can’t get one unless he maxes out his personal credit card, which is precisely the scenario I wanted to avoid. > > \*(What had to be done was to call “corporate accounts”, ask for a corporate account setup form, fill it out, submit it, and wait three days for approval. Easy enough… if done _two weeks ago_.) It’s your wife? Do you not ever communicate, like, ever? At home or talking about work? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3244 "2012-03-10T04:39:07Z")
> [@SpazCat](#): > > Afternoon and overnight people, if a guest leaves a package to be shipped, could you leave a fucking note for the morning shift? I come into work today to find a FedEx envelope and a Rentacrate destined for UPS sitting behind the desk. I waited until the AGM who was working last night came in to see if he knew what was up. He didn’t, so we had to call UPS and FedEx to come get their crap. All of which could have been done LAST NIGHT if one or more of you were on the ball. The solution to this is to call them at home during the morning shift and ask them what is supposed to be done about these unmarked packages. (If you time it right, you can wake them from their sleep.) And point out that if they had marked them with a note, you would not have had to call them at home. A few cycles of this and they will start to remember to leave notes. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3245 "2012-03-10T04:52:43Z")
HURRAY for Carol!!! Runs around throwing glitter and confetti and bad spelling. How’s the saying go? “it doesn’t matter if you hate your coworkers as long as they don’t know it?” I’m going to be sharing my office with the most annoying person ever. She laughs at all of her jokes, and she repeats them all the time. She never stops talking. Ever. She never asks for help when she’s fucking up my data base, but usually I can tell that there is a problem just by listening to her talk to the computer. She NEVER stops talking. EVER!!! She does know that I am usually listening to a book, so when she runs to me with an emergancy, she has to wait for me to shut the book down and ask “I’m sorry, what what was that?” Of course, she wants me to drop everything, climb down the ladder, walk half a block to look at her comp and tell her which button to push. This is all temporary, so I smile. Now, she thinks I’m her BFF. I am not. I want her to go move in with SG. I don’t like her at all. I don’t want to go to her kid’s birthday party, I don’t want to have lunch with her, I don’t want to spend any non-work time with her. The bitch sent me chocolate covered coffee beans in the interoffice mail today. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3246 "2012-03-10T07:56:50Z")
**Revenant Threshold** - I’m a younger volunteer at one of those shops, and I \*still \*deliberately hide in the backroom or cupboard under the stairs to avoid having to work the computerised till and Gift Aid. Umm, that didn’t come out as good as it sounded in my head, maybe I should learn how to do it properly so I’m not one of the people you end up griping about! > [@flatlined](#): > > The bitch sent me chocolate covered coffee beans in the interoffice mail today. The \*bitch \*- how dare she! Pass them on to us, so you don’t feel indebted to her? ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3247 "2012-03-10T11:16:15Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > Now, she thinks I’m her BFF. I am not. I want her to go move in with SG. I don’t like her at all. I don’t want to go to **her kid’s birthday party** , I don’t want to have lunch with her, I don’t want to spend any non-work time with her. > > The bitch sent me **chocolate covered coffee beans** in the interoffice mail today. The bolded parts contain the solution. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3248 "2012-03-10T13:40:33Z")
Saw an infuriating patient recently, but because of the Google-ability of this board, I’ll just condense the rant down to this: I would sympathize if patients think **with reason** that they may be: - the victim of disorganization - treated in such a way to cause them unnecessary pain - forgotten about - not listened to - run through tests or procedures for no reason However, when none of these are the case, when the patient is a MD and knows damned well that some things will inevitably cause pain because he/she is a couple days post-op from surgery and not healed yet and thus any touching hurts, and when said patient intentionally did not undergo elsewhere a particular procedure pre-op that he was told to do and concealed the need for said procedure from the surgeon **and** that very omission is causing the post-op complications… said patient can cram his complaints. This was also a bad day for the lab to call us and say that we had to send an employee all the way over there with a label to put the label on the sample. The sample arrived in a biohazard bag with patient identifiers on the requisition, but the sample tube needed a label too. And the lab wasn’t going to put a label on themselves. I had time so I volunteered to run over to the other building and do this, but it was generally bad timing with all the craziness. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3249 "2012-03-10T16:08:19Z")
Hey patient: you’ve been seeing this psychiatrist for years now. Don’t you love the way his appointments start on time? Never more than five minutes delay ever? You want to know how this happens? He ENDS sessions when they are scheduled to end. As in, if you have a half hour sessions scheduled for 2:30, then you WILL be leaving his office at 2:55 at the very, very latest. You know why? Because sometimes he has to call in scripts to pharmacies or get a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom. (Yes, gasp! he’s human being.) Those five minute gaps (ten minutes if you have an hour session) are what allows him to handle those tasks and then be ready for the next patient on time. So when you arrive TWENTY MINUTES LATE for a half hour session with a casual ‘sorry, I lost track of the time’ it means your ‘session’ is now just five minutes long. And it’ll do you absolutely no good to piss and moan about what a ripoff that is. How dare we charge you the normal amount when you barely got to talk? Well, IT WASN’T OUR FAULT you can’t get your act together well enough to be here on time… The doctor was there ready for you at the proper time. You have to pay for his time, even if you decided to waste it. And see that nice elderly lady over there, in the waiting room? Her appointment starts in two minutes. Are we supposed to make her wait around for twenty minutes, just so you can have ‘your’ full time?? And then the patient after her can wait, and the one after her, and on and on like dominoes? There were five more patients scheduled after you. Every damn one of them should give up 20 minutes of their lives because YOU SCREWED UP??? What a precious little snowflake you are. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3250 "2012-03-10T18:55:36Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > As in, if you have a half hour sessions scheduled for 2:30, then you WILL be leaving his office at 2:55 at the very, very latest. Sorry, but this is wrong. If you call it a “half-hour session”, it should last a half hour. If the doctor needs breaks between sessions, fine – just schedule them, and have the next session start at 3:10 or 3:15. But don’t squeeze the doctor’s breaks out of the time that the patient has paid for. Or list it as a 20-minute session instead. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3251 "2012-03-10T19:57:19Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Sorry, but this is wrong. If you call it a “half-hour session”, it should last a half hour. If the doctor needs breaks between sessions, fine – just schedule them, and have the next session start at 3:10 or 3:15. But don’t squeeze the doctor’s breaks out of the time that the patient has paid for. Or list it as a 20-minute session instead. Sorry – I was careless in how I wrote that. Each patient is given an information sheet the first time s/he comes, and it explains that a “full session” is 50 minutes, and a “Half session” is 25 minutes, so they know what’s what. That’s how all psychiatrists do it, so far as I know. I think there’s even a book with the title “The 50 Minute Hour.” I tend to refer to them as half and full _hours_ rather than the proper _sessions_ because those are the terms the billing data base uses, but I really shouldn’t. Anyway, the point is this pt KNEW he was scheduled for 2:30 - 2:55 pm. Showing up at 2:50 and then being indignant that you aren’t allowed to disrupt the schedule of every following patient because you screwed up is way out of line. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3252 "2012-03-10T20:30:17Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > The bitch sent me chocolate covered coffee beans in the interoffice mail today. Wow. I could forgive a lot for someone who would do that for me … ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3253 "2012-03-11T00:05:57Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > The bitch sent me chocolate covered coffee beans in the interoffice mail today. > [@hermette](#): > > **Revenant Threshold** - I’m a younger volunteer at one of those shops, and I \*still \*deliberately hide in the backroom or cupboard under the stairs to avoid having to work the computerised till and Gift Aid. > > Umm, that didn’t come out as good as it sounded in my head, maybe I should learn how to do it properly so I’m not one of the people you end up griping about! > > _You are a volunteer, you are allowed to tell them what you want to do._ > > The \*bitch \*- how dare she! Pass them on to us, so you don’t feel indebted to her? > [@SpazCat](#): > > The bolded parts contain the solution. Ohhhhh. You are totally evil and I love it 🙂 > [@SCSimmons](#): > > Wow. I could forgive a lot for someone who would do that for me … Now, see, this is the problem. She is nice and generous and thoughtful. When I can get a word in edgewise, I can see that we have things in common. She just never shuts up. And she is loud. And thinks that her lame jokes are funny the first time and even funnier the gazillionth time. I’m going to retaliate by bringing her roses and lilacs from my garden on Tuesday. Take that, BITCH!!! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3254 "2012-03-12T13:29:18Z")
New job. New email. New ID Card. The ID Card has chopped up the last two words of my first lastname, placed them and my second lastname on the second-lastname line. My second lastname is only the 10th most-common one in Spain, so one would think it would be a recognizable lastname-entity… The name shown on email ain’t me; firstname ain’t rigth, lastname is not legally valid as it is only a fragment of my full first lastname. The email admin I’ve had to contact about fixing it insists in calling me by a firstname which ain’t mine. I’m seriously starting to think I should go postal on sysadmins at any new job I join - preemptively :mad: ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3255 "2012-03-12T14:19:53Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I’m going to retaliate by bringing her roses and lilacs from my garden on Tuesday. Take that, BITCH!!! That’ll teach her! ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3256 "2012-03-12T15:58:50Z")
Our entire network went down at 9:15 a.m. just after I got in and was just getting all set up and started. It’s now ELEVEN O FUCKING CLOCK and still, nothing. No internal emails, no files, no intranet, nothing. I can’t get into Google … but I can post here. WTF? I’m taking a half day, leaving at 1, and, at this point, I could get exactly two hours’ worth of work done. We’re all so behind already. This is unacceptable. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3257 "2012-03-12T21:27:30Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Our entire network went down at 9:15 a.m. just after I got in and was just getting all set up and started. It’s now ELEVEN O FUCKING CLOCK and still, nothing. No internal emails, no files, no intranet, nothing. I can’t get into Google … but I can post here. WTF? I’m taking a half day, leaving at 1, and, at this point, I could get exactly two hours’ worth of work done. We’re all so behind already. This is unacceptable. Problems like this that last more than an hour are greeted with me going into my bosses office and telling him that I am going home. If it comes back up, call me. If the network is down, I can’t do ANYTHING. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3258 "2012-03-13T02:07:09Z")
We finally got a couple decent applicants in for the summer help. Guess who has to interview them? I’ve been with the company three months and they’re letting me hire people? Gulp… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3259 "2012-03-14T18:36:06Z")
Congratulations. You must have really impressed someone during your own hiring process. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3260 "2012-03-15T01:24:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Congratulations. You must have really impressed someone during your own hiring process. Thanks… could also be that no one else has the time! 😃 I’ve never had to interview anyone in my life. If I hire someone who turns out to be a douchebag it makes me look bad. And I only have a few weeks left to put together our baseball game crew. We need at least 10 more people. Yeesh, I’m starting to freak out… ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401/3261 "2012-03-15T04:43:16Z")
**Dr Girlfriend** I know how you are feeling. If you hire the wrong person, everyone will yell at you when she goes down in flames. If you ask the wrong questions, you and the company could get sued. I got tossed into doing interviews once, but got out of it by sucking up to my boss and asking her to sit in to see how I was doing. It went something like this “Hello and thank you for coming, I’m flatlined and this is Bosslady, please tell us why you want to work here.” The jobseekers would always talk to Bosslady and she would ask her questions. After the interview, Bosslady would ask me what I thought and I’d tell her if the applicant was rude to the receptionist or me. (rudeness to either of us got the application tossed), then let her make her decision. Maybe that could work for you? You won’t be making any decisions about people you have to work for…and you won’t be held responsible for bad decisons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=162) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/workplace-griping-anyone/560401.md?page=164)